Blogs may make you famous to your customer community. When you share insights on what you have learned and information about your industry experience, you may gain readers who will in turn spread the word about your business. So why doesn't every company have a blog that should have one? I discussed this very topic with Ryan Karpeles of Living Light Bulbs recently.

Ryan contributes an insane amount of (intelligent) questions to our conversations, as he put in a post on job interviews this past week. I sat down to chat with him late one evening as we wondered together about What's Next?for marketing.

Valeria Maltoni: In your post on What's next? you ask a series of questions. I think one that everyone would consider the million dollar questions is -- What happens when every company has a blog? Many content publishers and people who live this environment as an opportunity think that that is the correct direction. Is it? And secondly, what then?

Ryan Karpeles: First of all, simply having a blog is not the point. The point is to always be listening. Always. Interaction is paramount. We all know that one-way messaging is essentially dead, but it's hard to talk ourselves out of that mentality and actually practice what we preach. Having a blog is one way to walk that walk. It's a means to an end. The strategy is what counts. Since the strategy is to listen, the tool is a blog. It's not the only tool, but it's a pretty darn good one. At least for now.

Just to be clear, we're assuming that these blogs are actually providing value in the first place. They're not just placeholders waiting for people to visit and praise your company for having a dialog. If the dialog is worthless and hardly any value is added, what's the point in having a blog? Not every company should have a blog. But if they're not getting enough feedback, or failing to connect with customers, a blog might certainly be a step in the right direction.

So what happens when every company that needs to have a blog has one?

The bar will have already been raised much higher. By that time, blogs (or something of similar value) will be almost mandatory. They'll be an integral part of the marketing mix for companies all over the world. So what will we do then? We'll have to keep finding ways to get closer to the consumer, and keep wow-ing them on a frequent (but unpredictable) basis. The CEO of Pepsi will invite customers over for a home-cooked meal at his house (and they'll get to request the menu). The Customer Relationship Director for Reebok will take some clients to a baseball game and buy them all drinks. The CMO of United Airlines will give a customer an all-expenses-paid family vacation to anywhere (of their choosing) on the planet. And none of it will be done to drive profit. It will be done because it's the right thing to do. It's good business and it's good living.

But hey, if no one does anything like this, we'll all be golden! If our competitors keep slipping, and fail to provide value, our jobs will be incredibly easy. Once again, blogs are just tools. They're like ears. And the more ears your company has, the more you'll be able to provide for your customers. Not what you want. Not what you want them to want. But what they want.

In the end, it all comes down to relationships. If you can develop meaningful, rewarding relationships with your customers (heck, let's just call them people) you'll be in great shape. I don't think it's a bad thing if every company has a blog. In fact, it's probably an amazing thing. But blogs are just one element of relationship building. They're a great starting point. In the future, companies will have to expand upon that starting point and continue to deliver value in every way possible.

The question then becomes, Where does that value come from?Internal sources or external?

Valeria, how do see the balance of "providing value" playing out in the future? In other words, how much control can a company really give up? Can it rely on its consumers to create significant value or must it looks inwards for most of the innovation?

To be continued... these are interesting questions, join the conversation and help us build on your ideas.

“Atta Unsar” these are the opening words of the only written record we have of Gothic, the language that preceded common German from which English originates. It’s the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer and it means “our Father”. The verses were so important to transmit that they were stabilized in written form, and not merely consigned to the vagaries of oral transmission.

This is a figure of enormous importance and meaning through the ages. My father Achille was born in 1935, the first son of a dashing man who served with the Italian Red Cross in Libya and a woman so achingly beautiful they called her “la lupa”.

A mechanical engineer as a choice profession, father never left the arts too far behind. By the time I was old enough to appreciate it, we had an in house library of thousands of books, including two full encyclopedias. All connected to each other, from the Greek tragedies and mythology, to philosophy, poetry, history of thought, biographies, and the great classics. Translated into Italian with original text in front, I had access to the great classics from many cultures and ages.

Father started on stage alongside one of today’s most prominent Italian dubbing actors, Massimo Foschi. I still have his audition tapes where he recorded Luigi Pirandello in perfect diction and a warm baritone. That was the same voice that would lull me into sleep as a baby, musical and seductive like the song of Ulysses’ sirens.

The other art I learned from father was through the symphonic music programs he played on Sundays –- all the great composers from Mozart, my favorite, to Schubert, Bach, Beethoven, Albinoni, Liszt, Vivaldi, Respighi, Rossini, Mascagni, Verdi, Corelli, Chopin, and Debussy. The spirit of other times and stories enveloped and intrigued me during those quiet afternoons. Sometimes the best things are said without words.

A painting still drying, the brushes swirling in the cup like dissolving ice cubes, the odor of a lazy summer day in the air are all forever burned into my memory of a man who could spend hours enjoying the pure pleasure of learning.

I could never quite figure out how he did it -– here’s the part we want to produce, they would tell him, and he would design the machine that, when built, could give them that part. It’s a lost art, and maybe it was his Achilles’ heel, too.

He chose security over art, expression through children over self-expression, the stage of life over the life on stage. And maybe he gave up part of himself, of the possibility that his art could inspire and give to so many others, so that he could give and provide for us.

In doing that, he taught me to fight for the expression of the artist in all of us, especially of that amazing talent he transmitted to me with his sacrifice –- the love and appreciation of the finer things in life. I am my father’s daughter.

This is a broader discussion than just this weeks' launch of BrandingWire. And it is because the product of this collaboration ends up not being a tangible thing, per se. In fact, you are the ones with the products and services, the conversation around your brand and how to make it blossom is the focus and potential action of such collaboration.

I think we've covered 2.0 from the Web to Advertising to the kitchen sink. The one variable in this equation remains the human element. In Marketing 2.0, this variable populates both the working team and the outcome.

What if this concept came alive in an open source format? What if you had a team of experts who will look at your opportunity not in the traditional agency setting as a group brainstorm. What if the way the analysis, research, and experience deployed happened simultaneously? Each version would contain a recommendation from a different angle. As diverse as your customer base, and covering so many more ideas.

That is exactly what happened this week with our first case at BrandingWire. I've been talking about feedback and echo chambers -- there was tremendous positive feedback built into our offline conversations among the 12 members of this posse, yet surprisingly very little to non existent echo in the possibilities presented.

Joe Raasch, a reader and coffee house customer, comments on my take of our first coordinated post:

For the sake of conversation, what if you couldn't implement any of your ideas (cost, timing, staff, whatever) and you had to rely on a social network of some sort to get people to enjoy your coffee?

Some of the best food and drink experiences in many towns are the 'local bar'. You expect the chairs to be a bit mismatched, the bar to have cigarette burns, etc. Nothing flashier than a neon Summit Brewery sign. Yet the bartender knows your name, the beer is cold, etc, etc.

Or the great breakfast place that makes hashbrowns like no other...even though there are only eight seats in the entire restaurant. This is the engagement Drew mentions.

Do marketers create ideas for the opportunity to create ideas? Or are they pinpointed with the theme, client, and overall experience and brand promise in mind? Or do they feel compelled by clients to put several ideas in front of them because they feel that is what is to be delivered?

These are all great questions. I expanded on the concept of open source marketing at my post at The Blog Herald, so let's jump over there and kick off that conversation, then come back here and build on Joe's points. Coffee anyone?

A couple of days ago I posted a reflection on feedback, to which I received important... feedback.

Yes, comments and all other conversations you have with readers, audiences, and customers or clients, are filled with information you can capture and learn to use to your benefit.

As I stated in my opening paragraph, the problem with feedback is that we rarely know how to give it, and seldom learn how to take it.

Stephen Denny was first on the scene with the "Inside the Actors' Studio" moment concept on exit interviews. He wrote:

"...your point about giving and receiving feedback reminded me of a company that routinely did employee opinion surveys where everyone gave high marks because those who didn't were routinely found out and moved on. As a result, there was no honesty -- only fear. I think we have to decide what we want to hear, honestly, and then what to do once we've heard it."

CK took the time to report on a conversation (well, sort of) she had with an ISP provider:

"So an ISP calls me a few days after I bought a domain to 'get my feedback' (which it did) and to sell me on a privacy service (which it didn't, tho' they tried to scare me with the 'your identity could be stolen' pitch.) They asked me if I had any questions...which was great. And then they asked me what I most like about their service...what was 'the best thing' about them they wondered.

'But I've only had your service for 3 days, so I don't know what I like best,' say I.

'But I need to fill-out something on this form,' says he.

It was then that I told him that that was my answer--and was feedback that could truly help their surveys. Ya know, give a girl some time to try the service...and then ask that question."

Mark Goren pitched in with a series of questions of his own. I promised I would look into a case study of a company that takes feedback seriously. I'm an optimist, and I would love to enroll your help. If you know of any, tip me here, please. Mark said:

"Feedback goes both ways and I'm sure that the answer to your question 'Do you really want to know' is a 'no'. In many cases, at least.

First of all, not everyone(or business) has skin thick enough to take the negatives. Maybe they're asking to be nice. I'd love to see a realcase showing how a company responds seriously to its feedback.

Are they blogging, accepting comments and responding to them honestly?

"It seems we have so ritualized feedback that we get ritual responses...at times at least.

We know that humans learn bestwhen the feedback is quick and consistent. Touching a hot stove provides that kind of learning. If it took days before we felt the pain of a burnt finger, we'd be in trouble.

So why do we save it upfor annual reviews, exit interviews and employee surveys? Is this deflection?

And will social media help? I think it could and will but resistance to hearing and giving feedback seems to me more a human problem than a technology problem.

I'm more full of questions than anything else on this subject.

And I am still ruminating on what you write in the first paragraph: The problem with feedback is that we rarely know how to give it, and seldom learn how to take it. Why is that?

Yes...why is that?"

These questions and conversations were on my mind as I thought of a way of demonstrating how vital feedback is to your business and organization. See what I'm talking about at FC Expert blogs.

It has been a few weeks since I met Mike Levin, a Philadelphian now living in New York, on my home turf. Mike and I were in attendance at Seth Godin's first book event for The Dip. As we discovered during our conversation and I just found out in the last couple of days, we have more that one connection between us. This is not a six degree of separation post, although it could easily be.

That is great news, as I believe that when we meet people who are extremely passionate about what they do, demonstrably good at it, and nice to boot, we should pay attention. I just caught up with Mike's post on the event and his background, which he so aptly titled Benevolent Design Confluence & My Life Straw Revelation. In it, he self defines as a frustrated mechanical engineer who realized he should have gone into "applied engineering" and actually got into graphic design as a sort of cop-out.

You will see in a few days that I consider mechanical engineers a special breed (hint, look for my father's day post). And I think there is a consensus on a conversation that experience designers are indeed amazing problem solvers. Look at David Armano's approach to creating experiences, and you will see what I mean. Wait, it gets better, because as Mike writes, "it's never too late" to make a contribution in meaningful ways.

...an interesting intermediary project between graphic design and tangible social good. HitTail allows people around the world to pursue their dreams, and work towards becoming the best in the world at their niche specialty.

Mike wants to get things done and make a difference. Well, he's already had me pay attention to what he is doing at HitTail, and I must tell you, I'm not exactly a WebMetricsGuru here. Marshall Sponder is, and I found out he also knows Mike at the ProBlogger get together this past weekend in New York City. The recap of the evening is here. [that is me with Marshall at the Speakeasy]

Want to know what else Mike and I have in common? We both know Michael Port, see his write up about sex and the city, small worlds, marketing gurus, and a new book promotion technique here. Michael did an event with Fast Company readers' network a couple of years ago just before the publication of his book, and people are still talking about it. He was the first one to greet me at Seth's event, and I could not have asked for a nicer person to do the honors.

There is a marketing lesson in talking about SEO. In Mike's words:

As all HitTailers already know, and mainstream marketers are beginning to discover, it's not the keywords that give you bragging rights that matter. It's the conglomeration of "everything else" that counts. And lurking beneath the surface of "everything else" are tons of under utilized, most promising keywords that have the real potential of leading potential customers, clients and new audience to your site.

Yes, the world is slowly turning in the direction of applied engineering under the auspices of design. More and more companies want to hire people who are hands on and not only understand but also know how to make things work with their own hands. Is this a return to the guilds of Medieval times? It surely looks that way, doesn't it?

I like the way Mike, David, and Marshall think. In a future that is more and more project-based, hands on wins. Wait, we also need to become more flexible to go across disciplines. This marketer and communicator has been learning how for years. So let's not sit on the sidelines waiting for things to go mainstream. Let's not dip our foot in the water too timidly. Let's give it a try and see how it works.

Irony of ironies, Mike, a Philadelphian living in New York City, returned to Manhattan to meet a Philadelphian that day, Josh Kopelman. I do not know him personally; I know his former Chief People Officer and many of his friends. Now I'm going to see how this HitTail works -- I will report back, promise.

Today I had the good fortune of spending a lot of time with Lisa Haneberg and I can tell you that everything they say about her is true: she is energetic, passionate and motivated to help you succeed. If you do your daily practice, you are Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, too.

This is not going to be an interview with Lisa, Phil Gerbyshak has already done a great one at Make it Great! Lisa and I had an interesting conversation over dinner and I can add that she is also a fantastic active listener. The type of conversation she's in is focused and in action -- she paid attention to what I was saying and the goals I was sharing (focus) and asked me to elaborate on the actions I am taking to get there.

The language I've used for some of the considerations she recommended was a bit different. I found it easier to adopt hers in my thinking. And here's the big aha for me from tonight's event -- breakthroughs are a social act. Maybe I knew that, maybe we all know that, deep down. So I'm sure I'm not stealing her thunder -- and thundering it is outside just now -- in writing this.

We know it and we don't. Lisa has wonderful stories that can help you catalyze your thinking around concrete, simple, and sometimes unexpected things you can do every day to leap to a breakthrough. I believe her -- I'm reading her book right now and will be putting it into practice.

Some of the thinking we shared is around how humans are chaotic systems -- somehow they never do what you expect them to do. And that is good. What that means is that we can create small little changes in our daily routine that can lead to big effects. Did I mention that Lisa's tour is on a bike? This here is Hazel, a 700-pound beauty that can present some challenges when packing all your stuff to leave for your next destination.

Tonight I learned that how we share publicly our goals matters. As well, our ability and willingness to make requests can function as accelerator to breakthroughs -- remember, they are a social act. I think I can go a little easier on action, the third component of the daily practice, my foot there is firmly pressed all the way down to the metal. And I already have my first list of five unreasonable requests to make this coming Sunday. So here are my questions to you:

Do you share your goals with others in a compelling fashion? This allows you to enroll them in helping you.

How often do you follow up with making requests? For example, do you ask for (and take) candid feedback?

Are you ready to take action on what comes your way that is aligned with your goals?

Find Lisa's next stops on her tour here. I know for sure that she will be in Chicago, Fargo, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. I know a couple of you live in those places. So go out and meet Lisa -- she has passion and heart and your finding out how you can leap to breakthroughs is important to me. You can trust me on this one, I care. Thank you, Lisa.

Joe Cups, the owner of a small coffee company in mid-America, is looking for the next big idea. The company owns a few retail stores, having been in business and moderately successful for 8 years. Joe tells me that the stores are reasonably profitable so he has no debt and can fund his operations out of steady cash flow.

A Look at the Operations

They roast their own beans on-site -- their retail sites are wide-open, relaxed, and kind-of country-funky. There is a very strong local attachment to the company. Since it is a family operation, the recognition outside of the geographical area in which it operates is weak. Joe is committed to doing whatever it takes to grow his thriving business.

The Brand

Their brand name is OK but certainly not special. He came up with the tagline -- Great coffee at great prices! – after a long evening of work at the main store. Joe Jr. gave his dad a nice drawing of coffee beans falling into a cup and that became the logo. Until now, Joe never thought about marketing his business.

The Conversation

Joe says he wants to grow his operations, so we meet early one morning and talk about his ideas over a nice cup of java. The maps of the existing retail operations are spread in front of us; which extend in many local and regional focal points. Next to one of the central stores, we mark the planned location of a new Starbucks. Everyone wants to move into the area –- Caribou just announced it is going to open a shop nearby and so might Dunkin’ Donuts. McDonald’s is considering a better brew as well.

The Store Strategy

Locals love Joe’s rustic stores, especially the bean grinding activities. After conducting a few surveys of current customers and potential prospects, we decide to make each store even more open to the clientele. Joe thinks that opening up the grinding activities to customers after watching the roasting, would boost business. And for good reason –- the open layout of the retail space already lends itself to watching the process. The aroma would attract more customers in the crucial morning hours.

As we talk about the brand, we discuss keeping it simple. Since much of the coffee he sells is well known locally, the aroma speaks for itself. Going with a name like JavAroma that everyone understands seems like a good idea. What will really get people talking is the batch of mugs we are producing –- they look hand made and each is different. Customers will be able to pick among taller, wider, smaller, thicker and thinner cups emblazoned with the simple beans from Joe Jr.’s drawing and the new name.

We decide to fit an instant photo booth in each of the stores, right next to a gigantic board where people will be able to put photos taken while holding their favorite mug. The booth can fit up to three people so that small families can even sneak in two little ones. The board will be the focus of in-store re-launches –- a panel of local coffee connoisseurs and customers will be selecting the best photos to publish in the company’s JavAroma bulletin alongside grinding bean news from the area.

Groups meeting at the shops in the morning can also brew their own pot of coffee right at the table. Joe noticed that many local business people tend to meet informally before heading to the office. There are also two chapters of business associations that assist recent graduates with job tips and mentoring. The open and friendly layout of the stores located in convenient proximity of some of the main arteries into and out of the city continues to attract those groups.

The Expansion Plans

There are many government buildings and offices in the center of town where the zone planning did not allow for any retail stores. These are area free of any close competition as well. Joe heard from the Mayor that many of the county employees would love to buy a cup of JavaAroma on their way into the building. We think that there may be an opportunity to propose brew-it-yourself coffee kiosks.

Due to fire concerns, many of the downtown office buildings were never fitted with kitchens so the kiosks outside would provide a nice opportunity to take a break and get a cup of java even after the morning rush. We decide to try with a couple placed in strategic crosswalks. The Mayor, a coffee lover and strong supporter of a local business, agrees to photo ops on opening day.

Coffee Buzz

Joe agrees to a coordinated roll out of the new logo and tagline. The store instant photo contests have people line up around the corner for the opening. Each set of photos prints a custom message at the bottom –- people can express a motto or a favorite coffee memory in up to five words. Images and words are eligible for the grand prize of a brand new in-store coffee station named after the winner.

Store grinding bean contests are set up for groups and teams. The most popular show will be featured in JavAroma bulletin with a special reprint for the laminated table mats. The press drinks this up and decides to send its own team with photographer.

The traditional look of the kiosks we prepared fits with the open layout of the downtown area office park buildings. People are pleased with the convenience of self-service and the opportunity to exchange a few words with the knowledgeable and entertaining staff manning the kiosks. On rainy days they will be able to sip from their cup, which is not disposable, under the kiosk awning while they talk about their plans for the day with Rick, Jerry, or Sandra, who knows them by name.

Whether you are grinding, brewing or taking the coffee to go, there’s a mug in our store with your name on it. We decide to use the mugs as souvenirs and let people take them home or to the office with them. Many return with them or choose to have JavAroma keep them for the next time.

Every time I engage in a transaction or renew a membership, I am asked for feedback. I receive feedback after events and meetings I organize with clients and colleagues. The problem with feedback is that we rarely know how to give it, and seldom learn how to take it. Why is that?

Maybe we fail to recognize that feedback is a conversation -- it goes both ways. The way we engage in it speaks as much about how we think and who we are and want to be as it does about the circumstance, transaction, or product and service in question. Feedback is highly subjective. Yet we can learn to think about it in more ways than one.

The Company Survey -- How?

Do you really, honestly want to know? Are you writing your questions and asking them in a way that directs responses to confirm your theories, or are you willing to consider changes as a result of the conversation? How do you filter feedback?

We all know that, on the other side, it is pretty hard to provide feedback. Maybe we were in a bad mood, or maybe we were distracted and not listening/reading actively. So we go ahead and transfer our state of mind onto the questionnaire and charge it with intentions it did not have.

How do we keep a good balance between asking the right questions at the right time and helping people provide us with the information we need? Ask too much, or too soon, and people will disengage pretty quickly -- everyone is busy and so many things vie for our attention. Ask too little and too late, and people will think that you don't care.

The Exit Interview -- Why?

I was talking with a Commander of the Naval Air Engineering Station recently on the topic of leadership and this subject came up. Since I just recently had one of those, I thought it interesting that his take was quite similar to mine.

Have a process to capture information and feedback from staff who choose to leave your employ and those who are let go. You want to ask a lot of open, why questions, sit back and listen. This is the best opportunity you have to receive information from someone who supposedly has nothing more to lose.

To be realistic, often people leave for better jobs or because they just got to the point where they could not see themselves as part of your team anymore. They may be quite unprepared to provide candid and constructive commentary.

So to those who are in a position to help a company with 'why' I say -- think of it as a chance to lead, even if you had none in the course of your employment, even if you were let go. This is your chance to choose the high road, to be helpful and stay positive. In the long run, you care more about your self esteem and about helping your former colleagues.

Can social media be a tool for learning how to share constructive feedback?

[image of Italian actor Toto' who starred in 97 movies from 1937 to 1967 and was versed in all kinds of theatrical genres]

How could it not? Yesterday I met Dana Gioia, Chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts. And indeed it was a joy to be sitting among the audience at the Wharton Leadership forum and letting his verse enchant me along with 300 people. If anyone can tell a story with a poem it is Gioia.

The purpose of art is to bring people together, he said. Gioia sees the arts as an ecosystem that helps bring love into the conversation. If you follow the link above and read his biography, you will be impressed. He received a BA and an MBA from Stanford University and an MA in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. He also worked for 15 years in the corporate world, eventually becoming President of General Foods.

I must admit that the most endearing attribute to me is that he is of Italian and Mexican descent and can not only speak, but also translate from Italian, Latin, German and Romanian. He translated Eugenio Montale's Mottetti: Poems on Love (1990), probably my favorite Italian poet.

We often hear about the science part of marketing, we forget the art part. Yet if we do want to forge a deep emotional connection with the people we serve, if our desire is to listen to what people are saying, if we want to dance in the reinvention of this often pragmatic and 'just do it' business environment -- we would be smart to raise our daily actions into the realm of artistic excellence. My friend Constance Goodwin calls this Leadership as a Performing Art(R).

Montale, who received a Nobel-Prize for literature in 1975, wrote about a man's place -- and displacement -- in the natural world, about remembrance and loss, and about love. The strength of his poetry is direct, intuitive, forceful existential provocation, obtained with dry synthesis, with words and verses distilled to stern minimal syllables and signs: situations, feelings, fears and concepts precisely evoked with three, four words, two, three verses.

These are the things that life is made of. This poem, in a translation I cannot attribute at the moment, is one of my favorites:

[Maybe one morning walking in air of dry glass,

I'll turn and see the miracle occur --

nothingness at my shoulders, the void

behind me -- with a drunkard's terror.

Then, as on a screen, the usual illusion:

hills houses trees will suddenly reassemble,

but too late, and I'll quietly go my way,

with my secret, among men who don't look back.]

We should not try to read too much into it, I learned. It is easier to listen, to feel, and to understand. The poet's obscurity is the reader's liberty. Do you sense the hopeless yearning to relate our life to the life of the universe? The intuition that nothing could be at our shoulders? It is this intuition that produces his affectionate embrace of life, his careful attention to the small daily details and the burden of going with our secret, among people who don't look back.

We spent some time this week discussing a logo as art. Artistic excellence is an attitude, the availability to life, to the things we find important. We never know how long we have. Gioia demonstrated that we can put the heart back into business. Art allows us to see the small mundane details of life in the proper perspective, and by doing that, it makes us see that we matter. Love is a conversation.

And now, we continue the conversation on design of story through exhibits.

Valeria Maltoni: What organizations need to communicate information through display?

Alice Dommert: All sorts of organizations from traditional museum, botanic gardens, historic houses and sites, archives and libraries, hospitals and schools, stores and businesses -– the possibilities for display usually imply the showing of something three-dimensional. Ad usually something of significant value…. But who is placing the value? What may be important to a museum curator may hold no meaning for the more typical person.

Take the Rocky Balboa statue and its recent debate about it location at the art museum in Philadelphia. It sure wasn’t considered art by the Art Museum’s curatorial staff. But it sure is important to the people that I see waiting in line to take a picture Rocky’s feet. It’s all in the meaning that individuals bring to a place or object. If you’re really into this meaning-making topic much has been written –- just Google meaning-making and museums or cybernetics.

Display takes the task of information delivery from a mode of what could easily be achieved in a print (two dimensions) and adds the third dimension, usually through the addition of objects. As humans we just love stuff so displaying objects, even when the objects are not what might be considered “museum quality” increases the interest level for the viewer. But display in our field is still considered just the act of “showing” something.

The real interest is when a good exhibit developer (the person who decides what the story will be) in collaboration with a good exhibit designer, creates a story and design that begins to offer a context for the object which allows more opportunities for the viewers to connect.

For example let’s say you had a pair of pants from the Civil War that one wanted to display. Well sort of boring but if you knew:

who wore the pants;

if they had lived or died in the war;

about the women who sewed the pants;

what the pants symbolized –- wearing pants as a man –- but who wore the pants when the men left home to fight in the war;

that the pants were from a specific Pennsylvania troop that fought at the Battle of Gettysburg;

that many men sewed at that time because when their clothes ripped in battle they had to fix them;

that they were made of a particular kind of fabric that was the only thing available at that time in the South because they could get no other fabric at that time.

All of these stories could be used, and many interpretive exhibits try and tell too many stories… so the real task is selecting who you anticipate might be coming to that place to see those pants… families, civil war reenactors, adults.

The anticipated audience should dictate the context offered so that they can make their own connection, pick up on one of the stories of interest to them in light of their own life’s experiences.

Valeria Maltoni: What's most important to consider when creating an exhibit?

Alice Dommert: The anticipated audiences, the stories to be told, and inspiring, beautiful and ingenious design solutions.

Valeria Maltoni: Who works on one of your projects and how long does a project take from inception to completion?

Alice Dommert: We build teams for each project to reflect that project’s needs. The projects usually include an interpretive planner, exhibit developer, exhibit designer, evaluator (they test the content and design ideas with real audiences) subject-matter specialists, interpretive writer, illustrator, architect, landscape architects, multi-media consultants, conservators, all sorts of engineers, lighting designers, graphic designers, environmental graphic designers, interactive designers, exhibit fabricators… They can take from 6 months to many years.

Valeria Maltoni: What are the kinds of objections you face from organizations?

Alice Dommert: On occasion, institutions who have never executed high quality, durable, relevant, well-researched, inspiring and well designed exhibits balk at the cost of what it takes to design and fabricate an exhibit.

Fabrication costs can run an average of $500 per square foot. And professional fees can sometimes cost 2-3 times the cost of fabrication. It’s a real shock for folks who have not done this type of project before.

Valeria Maltoni: Your work includes the integration of design thinking and elements of the arts. How do you reconcile the artistic and the business aspects?

Alice Dommert: The amazing thing about good solutions, I mean really inspired, well thought out, beautifully detailed, strategically creative solutions (that seamlessly communicate content through every aspect of the design) is that when these solutions emerge the entire team can feel it in their bones.

Notice I said solutions –- not designs –- we solve problems and find solution –- we do not just produce designs –- we’re not artist who make a produce void of any parameters.

Our clients have complex goals and problems; we make sense of those issues and offer solutions. We take great care in building a unique team for each project, and the spirit of these teams position all of us as the explorers.

Together we just keep turning over the rocks until the perfect solution that meets all of the business and artistic criteria emerges. And with experience we’ve gotten really good at assembling those teams and knowing which rocks to turn over…and we’re still having fun.